Skyrim - Paid Mod Status Update(Re-Opened)

In-case you missed the news yesterday Bethesda and Valve now offer modders the option to sell mods for Skyrim. Lets just say it does not sit well with most gamers.

Still I'm more interested in what the modders think of this so here are a few links. First up we have a new update from the Nexus owner who is not a happy person right now.

Obviously this news has been a huge deal, and probably exploded far more than Valve and Bethesda realised it would (and not particularly positively, lets face it!). Some of the spotlight has been shined on the Nexus as a result of that. Some people have expressed concern we'll go the same way (they obviously don't read the site news) or that it'll affect us negatively some how. Everything you see here is completely free, and it's definitely staying that way. About 40 mods have been hidden in the Skyrim Nexus section since this announcement, most of which are people afraid their mods are going to be stolen and uploaded to Steam for profit.

Next SureAI the team behind Enderal:The Shards of Order posted an update with news they will not be selling the mod. I salute you guys, but still donate if you can.

Short news of the day: We won't sell Enderal via the Steam Workshop. We keep our promise and Enderal will be available for free.

I have to say that, if they ever implement some sort of Steamworks "lock" on subsequent titles (Fallout 4), whereby the only mods allowed are Workshop-based, I won't be bothering with the game at all. Bethesda games are bad enough with mods, let alone being taxed afterthefact to make them more tolerable.

Originally Posted by jhwisner
Yeah I posted the updated link in the old news comments thread a few hours earlier, I do miss the "submit news" link on the front page. I guess it was being abused or something?

I believe Myrthos removed it as the site had two links on the the front-page. You can still use the contact us link for submitting any links you guys find to get posted

So what do you guys think about Schlangster announcing that future versions of SkyUI would be paid versions? I know some people actually cited that as one of the few mods they'd actually pay for, at least before he made that announcement.

They are promising that any updates to functionality like the MCM will flow back to the 4.1 free version so that the free version shouldn't have compatibility issues which press users to switch to the paid version. Still that makes this by far the most used and widely loved mods to be consider going into the new paid system. Probably why Valve initially asked them to be part of the debut (weren't quite able to.)

People have been very vocal about their disappointment in both, Valve and Bethesda. At the moment, there are over 66 thousand signatures on the petition on change.org to remove the paid mods.
I really hope they listen to their customers and either reverse this fiasco or at least make an honest effort to improve it. But the most important thing is that they don’t include an online store on their future games for sanctioned mods. Hopefully, this scheme created such an awful precedent that it will spook other companies (looking at you EA) from trying this on their games.

Originally Posted by jhwisner
So what do you guys think about Schlangster announcing that future versions of SkyUI would be paid versions?

Schlangster has done a LOT on the Nexus, going back as far as FWE if not further (probably further…), so noone can fault the guy regardless of what he decides.

BUT… these are the crucial days of this Workshop pilot. Whether or not a second version of SkyUI remains free on the Nexus, it will become even more difficult to stem the tide of this Workshop charade once the most popular mod of all time lends legitimacy to it.

Originally Posted by Drithius
Schlangster has done a LOT on the Nexus, going back as far as FWE if not further (probably further…), so noone can fault the guy regardless of what he decides.

BUT… these are the crucial days of this Workshop pilot. Whether or not a second version of SkyUI remains free on the Nexus, it will become even more difficult to stem the tide of this Workshop charade once the most popular mod of all time lends legitimacy to it.

Probably one of the most important ¨mod¨ is the SKSE. Too many mods use the extender, and fortunately, they decided to keep it free. Otherwise, there would have been a domino effect and every single mod using it would have had to be paid.

Originally Posted by Drithius
Schlangster has done a LOT on the Nexus, going back as far as FWE if not further (probably further…), so noone can fault the guy regardless of what he decides.

BUT… these are the crucial days of this Workshop pilot. Whether or not a second version of SkyUI remains free on the Nexus, it will become even more difficult to stem the tide of this Workshop charade once the most popular mod of all time lends legitimacy to it.

Well they originally said they were done with Sky UI at version 4.1 and this prompted them to come back and do the crafting menus. Now they're holding off while they watch the shitstorm unfold. While I understand the panic that a mod like Sky UI going up as paid might cause for someone worried about the future of modding, the pre-emptive vitriol directed their way is certainly not encouraging them to keep making mods at all.

Chesko (Art of the Catch and Arrisa) sounds like they're almost ready to give up on modding entirely.

"I am also considering removing my content from the Nexus. Why? The problem is that Robin et al, for perfectly good political reasons, have positioned themselves as essentially the champions of free mods and that they would never implement a for-pay system. However, The Nexus is a listed Service Provider on the curated Workshop, and they are profiting from Workshop sales. They are saying one thing, while simultaneously taking their cut. I'm not sure I'm comfortable supporting that any longer. I may just host my mods on my own site for anyone who is interested.
What I need to happen, right now, is for modding to return to its place in my life where it's a fun side hobby, instead of taking over my life. That starts now. Or just give it up entirely; I have other things I could spend my energy on.

Real-time update - I was just contacted by Valve's lawyer. He stated that they will not remove the content unless "legally compelled to do so", and that they will make the file visible only to currently paid users. I am beside myself with anger right now as they try to tell me what I can do with my own content. The copyright situation with Art of the Catch is shades of grey, but in Arissa 2.0's case, it's black and white; that's 100% mine and Griefmyst's work, and I should be able to dictate its distribution if I so choose. Unbelievable.

So yeah, kind of looking like the lasting effect of Valve's terrible execution of this along with the vitriol and divisiveness engendered could be convincing some modders to stop all together and some of the best modders who had taken a break to stay away. The backlash might just kill paid workshop mods for skyrim, but the vitriol and anger directed towards modders isn't going to leave the community unscathed either at this rate.

Well, if I were creating modder resource assets, I'd definitely consider putting aside modding as well. Then there's the matter of Valve's non-existent administrative support to handle piracy - seriously, with 75%, hire some people you greedy schmucks.

Well, it's kind of simple… We talk about "gaming community" but is there such a thing? There have been VERY few cases where "community" showed devs, publishers and distributors errors of their ways.
Players complain loudly about various ripoffs and money grabbing schemes and then vote with their wallets and buy those games anyway. If history will repeat itself also this time, the scheme will prove its validity.
If, on the other hand, Beth will sell significantly less copies of their next game they just might reconsider.

Originally Posted by zahratustra
Well, it's kind of simple… We talk about "gaming community" but is there such a thing? There have been VERY few cases where "community" showed devs, publishers and distributors errors of their ways.
Players complain loudly about various ripoffs and money grabbing schemes and then vote with their wallets and buy those games anyway. If history will repeat itself also this time, the scheme will prove its validity.
If, on the other hand, Beth will sell significantly less copies of their next game they just might reconsider.

There's a little more of a community in modding than in gaming in general (I know that doesn't mean all that much though.) In particular with modding for a game like Skyrim though, the complexity of a few of the most popular mods (not all) nescessitates a significant ammount of borrowing/collaboration Of course that same cross-pollination that gets you a slightly less nebulous community than gaming in general also helps contribute to some of the train-wreck aspects - since a lot of the best mods don't exist in a vacuum and weren't created by lone geniuses hiding in bunkers.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Well leave it to Gamasutra to defend Steam as they hate all gamers.

In this case the creator wanted to offer the option to pay or not without making the paid version "deluxe" at all The only way they were able to do that was to offer two sepetrate but ultimately identical paid/unpaid versions to actually give a genuine "pay what you want" option… I don't think it means what gamasutra thinks it means.

Originally Posted by borcanu
whats the big deal. if the man wants to get paid for his work, LET HIM GET PAYED
what the hell !?!

the only thing i hate about it is the fees. it should be 75% modder, 20 beth, 5 valve )

It's problematic when it isn't one person's work and includes content created by others not for commercial use (sometimes with licenses precluding it.) For example, an NPC mod that includes custom hair, animations, or textures created originally by others as modder resources with the stipulation that they not be for profit.

That's one of the big troubles with trying to roll this out with fully developed pool of exiting mods out there. A lot of collaboration, sharing, and cross-pollination between existing projects turns monetization rights of some of the best mods into a clusterfucks. I

No good mods definitely means I stay away from Bethesda games. Right now, I consider them game-maker makers rather than game makers. Since Oblivion I just see their "games" as engines for modders to turn into games I'd play. This is what I fear will happen with this new paid-for mods system: